What Is Dumb Terminal?

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Dumb terminals have a lot in common with their namesake. They're screens with no brain power: they can't even clear their lines! They can only display what's on the screen and let you type into them. They were popular in the early days of computing when computers were so expensive that they were only available to large companies or universities. You could buy one of these terminals, connect it to your computer at home or work, and then connect it to your phone line so you can interact with it remotely. The computer would take care of all the processing power and heavy lifting, then send all your commands over the phone line for you to execute on the terminal. We have more sophisticated ways of interacting with our computers (like mouse-based interfaces). There are still some uses for dumb terminals—especially on systems that don't need user input except keyboard input (like ATMs). The dumb terminal is a glass Teletype with the same limited functionality. It's usually paired with a keyboard and sometimes a mouse to allow the user to input commands and data. The term "dumb" here refers to its inability to process the information independently—it relies on its host computer for that function. It's like an old-fashioned typewriter with no printing functionality; it just prints out whatever text you type. You're probably wondering what a dumb terminal is. Maybe you've heard it called a dumb terminal or just listened to the term in passing. Either way, we're here to help. A dumb terminal is a device connected to a computer system over a network. The most common type of dumb terminal is an old-fashioned computer monitor that connects to a server through a serial port on the back of the monitor and sends data back and forth between itself and the server using this connection. Users can then interact with this computer by typing commands on their keyboard or clicking mouse buttons while looking at the screen. So why are they called "dumb"? As these terminals have very little processing power—they can't run any programs themselves! The process displays commands so that when you type in something like "open file" or "copy," it displays those words on your screen instead of showing another word or image that might be there rather!

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